It’s raining dogs and cats on Broadway, with the opening last week of the play adaptation of “Dog Day Afternoon,” and this week of the voguing version of the musical “Cats” – the start of Broadway’s April showers that lead to Tony flowers.
April 2026 New York Theater Openings
Broadway Under $50: Discounts to April 2026 Shows
Three of the four shows I reviewed this past week are set in authoritarian times past, present or future – and ask in different ways whether art matters in the fight against fascism
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Why have Warner Bros. with 42 other producers financed a new Broadway play about a botched, two-bit bank robbery in Brooklyn half a century ago? The answer is obvious to me: It’s the star power past and present. The hit Al Pacino movie has been adapted for Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Emmy winners making their Broadway debuts. That’s not what the advance publicity would have us believe. “It becomes a crass commercial venture if you’re bringing something back, and it doesn’t have something to say about where we are today,” said Stephen Adly Guirgis…If anybody could make “Dog Day Afternoon” something other than a crass commercial venture, it would be Guirgis. But I guess nobody can, because Guirgis hasn’t.
Seagull: True Story,” a clever mash-up of Chekhov’s plot with a satirical version of Alexander Molochnikov’s effort to stage “The Seagull.” Molochnikov, who is credited with creating and directing the production, with a script by Eli Rarey, makes sharp if largely obvious points about the difficulty of creating art both in Russia and the United States. But the staging is witty and inventive
Fringe: The Meeting. Art and The Fascist State
Five former theater artists meet clandestinely in a dystopian totalitarian society in the near future where “The Leader” has banned all art, and even banned the words that describe what artists do, such as “playing the piano” and “art” itself. That’s the premise of “The Meeting,” a play by Brian James Polak that launched this year’s New York City Fringe Festival,
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Streaming now for free on PBS, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” tells the story of two Jewish cousins in 1939 who together invent a comic book superhero called the Escapist to fight fascists. The opera, which launched the Metropolitan Opera’s current season, is composer Mason Bates and librettist Gene Scheer’s adaptation of Michael Chabon’s 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The Week in New York Theater News
Theater Awards
Lucille Lortel Award Nominations for Off-Broadway 2026
Mexodus and Prince Faggot received the most nominations for the 41st annual Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. Winners will be presented at the annual ceremony on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at NYU Skirball.
Isa Briones and Sepideh Moafi to announce 2026 Outer Critics Circle Award nominations at the Museum of Broadway on April 21
Check out the New York Theater Awards Calendar and Guide 2026
Stage on Screen
“The Unknown” will be streamed for its final four weekend performances, April 10-12 at LOLST.org/unknown. (My review.)
Lin-Manuel Miranda will direct the film adaptation of Dave Malloy’s Octet, a musical about an Internet addiction support group.
My review of the 2019 production: So much feels so smart and spot-on about this latest theater piece from the creator and composer of “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” that theatergoers may want to excuse the show’s excesses. We will also probably feel forgiving toward the addicted characters’ obsessions and compulsions. Their problems, after all, are likely to be our own.
After a run in cinemas, the recording of the Broadway musical “Merrily We Roll Along” is currently on Netflix. (Merrily We Roll Along movie vs. stage musical)
A live capture of the musical “Six” will be presented in cinemas starting August 14
PBS will present its annual Broadway’s Best from Great Performances, airing Fridays May 8 – 22, starting with Suffs.
Megan Thee Stallion was back onstage in “Moulin Rouge” two days after being taken to a hospital after becoming ill during a performance. (NYTimes)
On Instagram, she had written: ““I really tried to push through my performance but I just couldn’t,…I just need one day to rest, reset, and take care of myself the way I should have been..I’ll be right back on that stage Thursday, stronger, clearer, and ready to give you 100% the way you deserve…”
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, will run Off-Broadway May 12 – July 6, following 8 sold-out concerts. Written by Dylan MarcAurele, the production will star Jay Armstrong Johnson as ‘Ilya Rozanov and Jimin Moon as ‘Shane Hollander.’
George Clooney told an interviewer a year ago, “I don’t want to be anywhere near the highest-paid actor on Broadway.”Nevertheless, he made at least nine million dollars during the 13-week run of a show with ticket prices as high as $825 that received a $3 million tax credit from New York State. (Broadway Journal.)
The War on Culture
Arts Journal on the fights over who controls cultural institutions: “The Smithsonian’s board sits with empty seats as the White House stalls appointments. A Tennessee library director was fired for refusing to pull books. And a Moscow court sentenced a German artist to prison — for art made in Germany.”
The Week’s Theater Video
Nathan Lane with Colbert, singing “Laughing Matters” from When Pigs Fly, written in 1996 but terribly relevant now. Accompanied on piano by Marc Shaiman.
